A 15-year-old amateur golfer from New Zealand, Ko has wowed the golf world having already won three professional events, including the recent ISPS Handa New Zealand Women's Open. She very nearly went back-to-back, but came up just short in Australia.

Anyway, Ko seems ready for the big time. That's not to say a move to the professional ranks is imminent. But, she's proven she has the game to not only compete, but win.

Through the years, golf has seen many young phenoms come and go. Few pan out and live up to the expectations (see the likes of Ty Tryon, David Gossett and Michelle Wie , among others).

In some cases, though, the hyped players do actually live up to the billing -- players like Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Lexi Thompson and more.

Ben Alberstadt, a featured columnist for BleacherReport.com, put together an impressive list of golf's top-10 phenoms.

Here's what Alberstadt wrote:

With 15-year-old Lydia Ko’s brilliant performance at last week’s Women’s Australian Open fresh in the minds of the golfing public, it seems an appropriate time to reflect on the best teenage phenoms in the few-hundred-year history of golf.

There is an unabashed bias in this list towards players who have gone on to great professional success. The inclusion of any golfers who have fizzled out on the professional level (Michelle Wie, for example) is only a product of the tremendous hype and mythmaking that surrounded their stellar play as teenagers.